The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East Hardcover – March 4, 2014

Seminal, must-read works exist in literature, philosophy, and political theory. For example, can one study the Cold War without having read George Kennan or discuss ethics without having read Rawls? In that vein, anyone who seeks to defend a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to have read Caroline Glick’s The Israeli Solution (2013).In Part I of The Israeli Solution, Glick, a senior correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, examines the history and politics of two-state solution, focusing primarily on the U.S. since America with its military and financial resources is, for better or for worse, the central outside player in the conflict.Why does Glick call a two-state solution an illusion, a false-hope, a chimera? From Jimmy Carter on, American presidents have viewed solving the conflict as the key to peace in the entire region––from North Africa to the Fertile Crescent. “[M]ost American policy makers,” Glick writes, “share the view that the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would remove the principle cause of the violent extremism that afflicts the Arab and the larger Islamic world.”Glick disputes that thesis. Rather than consider the possibility that Arab leaders have concerns other than their hatred of Jews, American leaders have blindly sought to pressure Israel to swallow untenable peace terms thinking regional peace would ensue. Hopefully, that blinder has been removed from policy makers’ eyes by the rise of ISIS, the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, and the global spillover of the Shia-Sunni conflict, none of which stem from the lack of a Palestinian state.A Ninety-Year FailureThe two-state solution was invented as a response to the unwillingness of Arab leaders to live along side the Jews who had returned to their ancient homeland. It has been presented as the basis for peace plans nine different times over the past nine decades, each time a failure. Worse, unquestioned adherence to this “solution,” has “weakened the U.S. position in the Middle East.” Each time the U.S. has put its reputation and resources into a two-state plan the outcome has resulted in the region becoming “less stable, more violent, more radicalized, and more inimical to American values and interests.”Why hasn’t the two-state solution worked?The primary reason the two-state concept has failed is, as Glick states, that the “two-state formula is based on the proposition that the root cause of the Palestinian conflict is Israel’s unwillingness to surrender sufficient lands to the Palestinians, rather than the Palestinians’ rejection of Israel’s right to exist and their continued commitment to its destruction.”Take, for example, Yasser Arafat’s walking away from extensive and foolhardy concessions forced upon Israeli leaders by Bill Clinton, including agreeing to shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. How did Arafat respond to Israel’s willingness to give him most of what he demanded? He launched a war of terror whose toll over two years exceeded seven hundred killed and four thousand wounded.Clinton devoted the last months of his presidency to trying to get the two sides to reach a final settlement. Yet he failed to understand that Arafat never intended to sign an agreement and only engaged in negotiations to strengthen his position at home and weaken international support for Israel.Arab Anti-Zionism and World PoliticsIn Part I of The Israeli Solution, Glick reviews the careers of two men who played key roles in developing the notion of a Palestinian people––Haj Amin el-Husseini and Yassar Arafat. Husseini allied himself with Adolph Hitler and spent the war aiding the Nazis attempt to annihilate the Jewish people. No less heinous in his aims, Arafat used political warfare to cover up the terrorist campaigns he launched against Israel and its population.To further his aims, Arafat also turned to the Soviet Union, joining in their effort to weaken the U.S. internationally by defining the U.S. as a supporter of racist colonialism exemplified by the Jewish state. To label Jews the oppressor, Arafat and the U.S.S.R. sought to deny the fact that today’s Jewish population descended from the Jews of the Bible and attempted to reframe the historical and archeological record to undermine Jews’ claim to be returning to their homeland.American leaders unfortunately overlooked Arafat’s role in training other would-be terrorist groups, including Nicaragua’s Sandinistas, Germany’s Red Army faction, the IRA, and Ayatollah Khomeini’s Revolutionary Guard. Arafat’s techniques included airplane hijacking, bombings, ground assaults, assassinations, and even surface-to-air missile attacks against jetliners.Ironically, throughout most of his career Arafat paid little attention to the Arab refugees of the 1948 war or to those living under Israeli control in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and Gaza. Only after local protests erupted in those regions in the 1980s did he see the possibility of using Palestinians in his war against Israel. Sadly, the U.S. helped finance that war and even trained Palestinian Authority soldiers some of whom used their new weapons to attack Israeli civilians.The Moderate Palestinian LeaderNo discussion of the two-state solution would be complete without focusing on Arafat’s successor, current Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Some have tried to paint Abbas as a moderate and a man with whom a peace settlement can be reached. Glick destroys that chimera as well, showing Abbas to be cut from Arafat’s mold as a man skilled in the use of diplomacy on behalf of his ultimate goal, which is to destroy Israel as a Jewish state. Abbas has waged war through the international press, the U.N., and NGO’s––while refusing to negotiate directly with Israeli leaders. As an example of how little interested he is in a two-state solution, Abbas spat in the face of logic by petitioning the U.N. to create a Palestinian state along the very boundaries his predecessors rejected in 1947.Amazingly, the U.S. has continued to put their faith in and finance Mahmoud Abbas despite his forming a political alliance with Hamas and despite Hamas’ having thrown the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza and killed or jailed many of its operatives.As an aside, it is important to understand what distinguishes Hamas from the PLO/Fatah. While Arafat and his mentor Husseini were Arab nationalists first and Muslims second, the founders of Hamas are Muslims first and foremost. To them, Israel stands in the way of the establishment of Allah’s kingdom on earth, and like all infidel nations, including the United States, Israel must be eradicated.U.S. Interests and the Two-State SolutionUnfortunately, many Americans believe the U.S. support for Israel is largely a function of sympathy based on the destruction of European Jewry. As a result, they overlook the extent to which Israel advances and protects U.S. interests in the region. Further, they fail to consider the consequences were Israel to be forced to retreat to indefensible boundaries by ceding all or most of the Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians.An Israel reduced to pre-1967 borders would be vulnerable to being destroyed by jihadist militants attacking from Gaza and the hills of Judea. That would result in the U.S. being drawn into the conflict at who knows how large a cost in dollars and lives. Further, Israel would no longer represent the one stable, self-sufficient non-expansionist democracy in the region.By giving in to those who use terrorism to advance their aims, the U.S., were it to force Israel to give up Judea and Samaria, would be sending a message to jihadists across the globe that the U.S. will not stand up to terrorism and will not protect its allies when push comes to shove.Under Barack Obama, the U.S. has increased pressure on Israel to accept a two-state solution. In his “New Beginning” speech in Cairo in June 2009, Obama described the lack of a Palestinian state as ‘intolerable,’ and equated the Palestinian’s aspirations for statehood with those of the Jewish people.Notwithstanding the fact that the Palestinians as a distinct national group is a recent construct, the main reason the two-state solution won’t succeed Glick argues is that it has never been the goal of the PLO or its successors to live side by side a Jewish state.Evidence that their demanding a state of their own has functioned mainly as a component of their strategy to attack Israel in the international arena is the fact that they have walked away from the table each time Israel has accepted terms that would have led to a Palestinian state. Their true objective has been the destruction of the Jewish state as the so-called moderate Mahmoud Abbas made clear as recently as the 2013 anniversary of the founding of the PLO.The One-State AlternativeCaroline Glick’s alternative solution is to incorporate Samaria, Judea, and Arab Jerusalem into the state of Israel. Israel’s legal claim to those territories stems from a 1922 resolution the League of Nations that defined the British Mandate as extending to the Jordan River. That boundary remains in force Glick argues based on United Nations Resolution 242 that stipulates all states have the “right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries.”Recognizing that her solution will face fierce opposition, Glick examines each of the potential opponents and finds them wanting in terms of their ability to prevent Israel from formally declaring those regions part of the state of Israel. None of the Arab League nations are likely to go to war over the issue, Europe is already engaged in supporting the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in myriad ways, but Israel could tolerate more boycotts and other likely interference. The key to the one-state solution is the United States must support it.Glick makes a strong case that Israel’s staking its claim to the disputed territories would be in the best strategic interest of the United States. For one, Israel represents a counter-balance to Iranian and Russian ambitions in the region. In addition, Israel represents the only country in the region whose society is also modeled on the rule of law and democratic rights. The connection between the U.S. and Israel is one of people-to-people, while the U.S. relationship to other countries in the region is largely regime-to-regime.The price the U.S. would pay for backing a one-state solution would be more noise than substance. If U.S. stopped giving Palestinian and Arab leaders hope that we will appease them on the Palestine issue, we could deal with them more honestly on the conflicts I cited above. In terms of aid, it would eliminate the millions of U.S. tax dollars being used to prop up the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.Questions have been raised as to whether Israel would want to add the approximately 1.6 million Arabs currently living in the disputed territories to its population. Glick answers these concerns to my satisfaction, including the claim that the Arab population would eventually outnumber the Jewish population and win the war by having more babies than the Jews. She disputes Arab census and birthrate data and while she doesn’t discount the likelihood that there would be considerable problems, she argues the alternatives––continuation of the status quo, or giving Israel’s enemies a free hand to attack at will––are worse.There is a model for what would happen were Israel to shut down the Palestinian Authority and declare the disputed territories formally part of Israel. That model is the Golan Heights where many Druze who once vowed to resist Israeli rule today apply for Israeli citizenship.Over time the Arabs living in Judea and Samaria would see improvements in their living standards and economic well-being. They would learn to appreciate, as Arab Israelis have come to appreciate, the benefits of living in a society based on equal treatment under the rule of law and where one can accomplish legitimate goals without resorting to arms.Those Arabs who would not want to live in Israel would be able to move to Gaza, which would not become part of Israel, or elsewhere. Freed from having to focus on creating a Palestinian state in Israel, the U.S. could pressure Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the other Arab states to offer the Palestinians citizenship so they could move out of the refugee camps. The world also needs to free the Palestinian people from the autocratic rule of Hamas, the Fatah, and other terrorist groups. Palestinian nationalism should not be ignored, but it needs to find a home of its own and not look to what belongs by history and by international law to Israel and the Jewish people.

This will probably be one of the most important books published in 2014. This book will and should change the foreign policy of the United States fundamentally.The book discovers the history of denial - denial both by Republican and Democrat administrations of the United States.Both Republicans and Democrats have denied the historic Jewish roots of the land of Israel including Judea and Samaria, while denying the fact that "Palestinian people" has been invented by Arabs for the sole purpose of expelling Jews from the Middle East and wiping Israel off the map. Both of them have punished Israel for defending itself, while rewarding terrorism on the side of Palestinians with billions of dollars.The result has been a weakened Israel and turmoil in the Middle East, where a lot of innocent people - Jews and Arabs alike - are killed.The path towards the "Two State Solution" has been a pure disaster. The fact that we haven't seen "Palestinian State" as of now only proves the self-evident truth that an entity whose only identity is the hatred of the neighboring people cannot make peace with these people, let alone establish a country side by side with them.Caroline Glick proposes that it is about time for Israel (and the US) to dump "Two State Solution", and instead, pursue "One State Solution", in which Israel applies its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.With One State Solution, Israel will be stronger. Stronger Israel brings about peace in the State of Israel and stability in the Middle East. Stronger Israel is in the interest of the United States, too.It is, indeed, about time the world recognizes the huge denial and see the light of the truth.Personally, however, I would like to see more explanation on the following two points.1) Gaza.Caroline Glick simply drops Gaza, saying that Israel has relinquished the sovereignty when it pulled out in 2005, and so there is no basis for the inclusion to the Israeli One State Plan. Since the pullout, Gaza has been the launching pad of the terrorist missiles. Evacuating Jews from the historically Jewish towns was obviously a disastrous mistake. Mistake cannot be remedied without some action. Would it not be a national responsibility to take the land over again and resume normalcy in the life of the southern Israeli towns where thousands of rockets launched by the terrorists in Gaza fall on the residential area?2) Demographic.Caroline Glick proposes that even after providing Israeli citizenship to all Palestinian Arabs in the Judea and Samaria, Jews will secure solid two thirds majority.Loot at Britain. Look at Europe. Over there, Muslims are minority. But, this growing minority is loudly demanding the special status in the host countries, attempting to impose Sharia Law and disrupting the normal civil life.Two thirds majority looks rather precarious and "not so catastrophic" at best.Moshe Feiglin proposes giving Palestinian Arabs $500,000 per family to leave Israel for good. Israel has spent 10% of its GNP every year to maintain the "Two State Solution" and the Oslo Accord, and therefore, the money for the payment can be generated by abandoning both of those futile policies.I would personally would like to see a combination of Glick Plan and Feiglin Plan in this regard.Anyway, a MUST READ for the 2016 Presidential hopefuls. It is about time we take path to the truth.

Growing up during the Clinton administration, by the time I became politically aware of the world that I lived in the Oslo Accords were already well underway. That is to say my entire memorable life, peace in the middle east has always been "this close", a pen stroke away from budding into Utopian reality. However anyone who ever tried pushing the wrong side of two magnets together has also been "this close".Caroline Glick methodically explains the glaring evidence that the PLO accomplished more of it's founding objectives with the "peace process" than it did w/ 30 years of war. Hence in the face of the underwhelming 20 years of fruitless negotiations isn't it fair to consider alternatives? In part III she explains what a One State solution could look like, and anyone who thinks their fellow man deserves a bit of dignity and a life free from terror regardless of their race/religion will be receptive to the picture she paints. As a Canadian from an ethnic minority who has visited Israel, I can testify that being an ethnic minority in a benevolent democracy is preferable to being a ethnic majority oppressed by your own people in a malevolent corrupt dictatorship 6 years past due for an election.Finally in chapter 16 Caroline Glick defiantly mentions the One State Solution could be the catalyst that turns seething European hatred for the Jews/Zionism/Israel into war, notwithstanding the momentary lack of EU military prowess. For Torah/bible believers it is worth noting the One State Solution would put Israel in controversial possession of the "Mountains of Israel", the people dwelling safely, and if the plan works "dwelling without walls" (Ezk38:8-11). Israel has been restored, united Europe (read Rome) has been restored, and it looks the world could be well on it's way to seeing a re-match of AD70, but according to Ezekiel 39 the ending will not be the same.

This is a solution many Palestinian Arabs will secretly welcome. It may seem completely paradoxical, but Glick's detailed and thoughtful account of the history of Palestinian leadership's addiction to hostility to Israel which has repeatedly trumped and sacrificed its own interest in nation building underscores just how utterly futile and blinkered current Western peace efforts have become. Many of its participants and many journalists know only too well how delusional the idea that Abbas is interested in peace has become. Introducing Israeli law in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) as in East Jerusalem and in Golan may seem to some like a recipe for regional war, but incrementally and carefully handled it would prove a boon to all the interested parties (inside and outside the State). Sadly the present US administration is so strongly opposed to Israel's interests they have also become blind to what's actually in the best interest of the Palestinians too.

This is written by a lady who really knows what she is talking about. She was involved at a frontline level in the peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, and was a personal adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu. Now a journalist, her writing style is extremely readable and understandable, and is able to spell out the truth about the disastrous '2 State solution' that is being rigorously, and unsuccessfully pursued by US and Western governments. It is eye-opening about the level of deliberate ignorance and refusal to listen to the reality of the situation regarding the ideology that drives the Arab world, and even in the face of outright Arab/Palestinian declarations that they will NEVER admit to Israel's right to exist, therefore removing any platform for negotiation, the Western powers continue to pour money, political energy and appeasement towards a group of people who are as open to this as Hitler was to Macmillan before the 2nd World War! Brilliant book, must be read by everyone.

Like Danny Danon's work, this is a well researched and written work. I would highly recommend it. However the window for such a plan as this is swiftly closing. Even if a one state solution was implemented it would not change the attitude of many to Israel. The issue is Israel and its people will always represent an alternative reality to that of other peoples. A reality connected to the God of the Bible and this is the issue. If Israel is real (as it is) and its history is real and true (again as it is based on archaeological evidence) then that means that other histories are false. This is a foundational issue that will not go away, no matter what political avenue is tried. Israel's future and its continuance depends on the same factor as in the past (I AM).

Caroline Glick's writing is always well worth reading, but this book is especially worthwhile.She traces the history of the idea that a "Two State Solution" will bring peace, from its flawed creation through repeated failures to its latest failure. She shows how a two state solution is not the answer, because the Palestinian leaders do not want a state; they only want to destroy the Jewish state. (it is still in the PLO and Hamas charters)She goes on to argue that everybody would be better off if Israel exercised sovereignty over the West Bank as part of Israel. The Palestinians would have Human Rights undreamed of by most Arabs and after the fuss died down nothing would happen.Sound preposterous to you? Read the book and think again.